5:21 PM,
Dec. 7, 2013

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Federal and state law allows police to collect cellphone information without a warrant if they believe someone is in danger, but a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that these emergency requests are sometimes inappropriately used for ongoing criminal cases.

The Washoe County Sheriff's Office sent an emergency request to a cellphone provider this year for information about someone involved in an ongoing "homicide investigation." And the Reno Police Department recently made an emergency request for a person in a "robbery investigation," the RGJ found.